(TV) Why Do We Hate Powerless Characters?

Walter White was a bastard beyond repute. From watching someone die have could have saved to poisoning a child and worst of all, being able to justify it all with a straight face. Walt's pride and ego destroyed just about everybody he came across, friend and foe alike however, many fans of the show were able to root for him till the very end while harboring a deep hate for his compromised wife Skylar which points to a central problem in modern television and increasingly in wider society.

The hate was so virulent for Walt's better half that Anna Gunn (who played Sklyar White) wrote an article in the New York Times addressing it.  There are a number of reasons you could point to as why she was so hated from her being the most consistent obstacle throughout the run of Breaking Bad in Walt's way realizing his inner badass or the criminal lack of character development of Skylar arguably up until the last two seasons to offset the more unlikable traits of her character but the real reason is that if there one thing a modern TV watcher can't stand is characters who are powerless.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about a pathological hate for characters on the lower rungs of the social ladder or an institution otherwise large chunks of The Wire would be unwatchable but a real disdain for a character who fails again and again, even in a favorable position to do so, to exercise moral agency. People have many reasons why they love a character but what is consistent among them is a character ability to exercise moral agency and Skylar, throughout the run of Breaking Bad, failed spectacularly to exercise hers. 

Even when she had the whip hand over Walt when she cornered Walt into admitting his meth cooking activities, she failed, even under advisement, to take control of the situation as Walt, a character with real moral agency, was able to circumvent every measure Skylar laid in his path to the point that Skylar gave up and became even more complicit in his crimes. Walt, as we were to find out, didn't have a moral bone in his body but he was always able to exercise moral agency even if he did err on the side monstrous evil nine times of out ten.   

Another example of audiences reacting badly to characters with little or no moral agency is Sansa in Game of Thrones which is made worse by the fact that many of the young and female characters in the piece have no problem exercising their moral agency. For example, Sansa's younger sister Arya, who is arguably in a more perilous position than her older sister, is perfectly capable of exercising moral agency arguably better than some of the older characters in GOT universe which only serves to amplify Sansa's perennial victimhood as she encounters one tormentor to the next.

Even in this season's run of the show when we see Sansa show her capacity to knowingly lie to authority figures when testifying in Peter Baelish's trail in front of the high lords of The Vale, it was act of loyalty or allegiance to Peter Baelish , once again another person with true moral agency, who so far has proven himself as a man not to be trusted on numerous occasions.

The Show is littered with psychopaths cold blooded killers, manipulative and cold blooded political operators and just genuinely unlikable people you thank the gods that you'll never met in person yet, somehow, a young innocent girl who watched her father lose his head, suffered sustained abuse and humiliation at the hands of her hosts/captors who also devised the wholesale murder of her mother, older brother and sister in law is the object of much hate and derision by many fans of the show shows either how important moral agency is in character development or serious deficiency in empathy in postmodern TV viewership.

Sure it can and will argued that Skylar and Sansa are both works of fiction and whether we love or hate them is inconsequential or that we watch TV to be entertained and characters who do not service this need are likely to feel the audiences' wrath but the almost pathological hate for powerless characters is telling and often spills over into in the real world The most poignant examples of this strange dichotomy are found in  rape cases such as the Steubenville rape case where the moral agency of the victim, instead of the perpetrators, become the subject of debate.   

However, getting your capacity for moral agency questioned in the public is much better than being rendered invisible like most us are as real life human beings are often out in positions where our moral agency is compromised on a daily basis. Perhaps this is why we hate powerless characters as they reflect a certain truth about ourselves we don't like and like even less when made to confront it in our fiction, the one place we can escape it. 

In sum, whether it's the lack of moral agency or an unthinking dislike for human weakness, powerless characters are going nowhere in fiction as they are in society and indeed many of us who make up the numbers in the real world are more powerless than we'll like to admit. The Skyar's and Sansa's of modern fiction may have their moral agency tested but it's the real world where we must be careful of  imitating our ambivalence towards powerless as that's when things get complicated.   

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(Celebs) A Celebrity’s Son Accused of Rape in China

In China, a 17 year old son of a popular Chinese military musician has been accused of being part of a gang that raped one girl. His father Li Shuagjiang is famous; he has starred in various television galas and made People’s Liberation Army’s anthems. His father is a well respected musician and the media refers to him as the “general” despite being just a civilian PLA member.

Li Tianyi is minor at the age of 17 years; He told the court he was too drunk and even passed out during the February incident. Tianyi claimed that he did not touch the girl; he neither had sex with nor beat her. He was accused with four others; both lawyer, Tianyi’s and the victim’s released statements through the media and formed a public opinion. This is likely to put indirect effect on the outcome of the case because the Communist party officials’ control courts in China will be influenced. This case brought up the public interest because children of the elite in China are seen as very spoilt. The trial had to be closed because the accused is underage.

Tianyi’s lawyers blamed the bar in Beijing for allowing under aged teenagers drink alcohol. It was not easy for the victim to come forward and report the rape attack because she received threats.

There were big online debates that could not help questioning the reputation of the accused. They lay bare their anger over how the rich and those connected with the powerful people in China go unpunished. This is not the first time this teenager is taken to court. In 2011, he attacked a couple after a small traffic dispute. He also threatened people who gathered to see what was happening and the case got widespread attention.

(Politics) China Military and Energy Spending: A Cause for Concern?

Much has been made of China apparent rise and the factors, consequences and potential outcomes possible attached to its growth, but so far, much of it has been negative and with the rate that China is expanding it’s military capabilities and importing oil, pessimists towards China’s growth as a international player have a solid argument as to why the glass is half empty.

While China may be in a region where it is next door neighbor is a nuclear police state in North Korea and is less than pally with it’s even less than favorite neighbor in Japan, It safe to say that China are increasing their military prowess at a alarming pace with its navy “now second in size only to the US in terms of raw numbers”[1].  This is possible thanks to massive spikes in China’s defense budget with it’s leadership revealing a massive 11.2 percent boost in 2012 alone following “a long term trend of double digit percentage increases in annual spending” [2].

While it might not entirely clear just how much China is spending to build up its military power, according to Pentagon estimates, Security has no price in Bejing as spending could be “between $120 billion and $180 billion”[3]. While China massive defense spending hikes would send a shiver down any  neighboring nation's spine, China’s less than cordial behavior towards it’s  neighbors  does nothing to ease the real fears of how China will act when it completes it’s ascent to become the world’s foremost superpower.

China has been super assertive towards it’s neighbours, particularly Japan, over small disputed islands  which both sides claim to be theirs to the point that both sides have already named the island as China has named lands (currently in dispute with Japan) in the East China Sea ‘Diaoyu’ while Japan refer to the lands as ‘Senkaku’[4]. China, none to shy asserting itself, has land disputes with regional neighbours “Philippines and Vietnam, as well as Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia, over territory in the South China Sea”[5]

While you may now be thinking why China would kick up such a fuss in its region over  minuscule islands you would struggle to locate with Google Earth ,  the fact that the islands are, wait for it, “resource-rich” may ease your  search for an answer. China are also trying out it’s naval power in the form of “patrols and exercises” in these “contested waters” because China will eventually seek to make the islands theirs and there will be little it’s neighbours can do about it.

The news of China surpassing Uncle Sam in oil imports may have come as a shock to most due to the US’s well documented reliance on middle east oil and the even better documented foreign policy implications of relying on oil from the Middle East, but it shouldn’t have to a shock to anybody.

China has a big oil demand due to it’s population size and a slowed but still growing economy but maybe  the  concern of China becoming the world’s foremost buyer of oil was over the historical  need for oil for nations to fight sustained wars. While there is no indication that China is looking for a military confrontation with anybody, when a nation buys oil at a rate China is, the political classes of all countries involved watch closely with trepidation as there is only two real reasons for such an influx, a growing economy with a big oil demand or the preparation and possible execution of sustained military campaign.

China’s oil buying, defence spending and it’s new assertiveness in the region has a number of nations spooked, especially Japan.  Japan uneasiness over China’s growth as a military threat had made Japan increase  it’s own defence budget increase (it’s first in over a decade) by a meagre (in comparison to China’s at least) 0.8 percent and its “coast guard budget” by 1.9 percent “ in response to  China’s “incursions”[6]. It might have been more but Japan are in no position to assert itself against China as Japan is hamstrung by it inability to “service  record debt “ and a “decades old informal military spending limit of 1 percent of gross domestic product”[7].

China’s other neighbour, India are also less than comfortable with it’s  rise signalled  by it’s recent nuclear show of force and an increase of its defence budget to the tune of  $37.7 billion[8] . Both India and Japan have sought to establish stronger ties with each other with Japan  being “the largest donor of official development aid to India” [9].

Both nations, encouraged by the US especially and more importantly, have been long looking to contain the rise of China with a conspicuous increase in trade between the countries as trade between India and Japan was only $6.5 billion in 2005 but jumped to $18.5 billion just six years later[10]. However, all this minor positioning and balancing on the part of China’s regional rivals is the work of  the United States, who see China as a threat to it’s previously unparalleled global dominance.

In Sum, China rise in military and economic might was always going to scare neighbours and concern rival but the pace over the thirty has been phenomenal  and now we are only now starting to see how the world responds to what now looks like  China are looking to assert themselves more as nation of their size and stature has, and as China’s political leadership might argue, should.

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[1] D. Lague and T.Y. Jones, 2013, China Defence spending seen rising as territorial rows deepen,  http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/01/us-china-defence-idUSBRE9200HH20130301

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] I. Reynolds, 2013, Japan Defense Budget to Increase for First Time in 11 Years, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-29/japan-s-defense-spending-to-increase-for-first-time-in-11-years.html

[7] Ibid

[8] S. Choudhury, 2013, India Increase Defense Budget to $37.7 billion, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324662404578331762186925312.html

[9] T. Kitazume, 2013, Japan urged to help build India’s Infrastructure,                                                                               

[10] Ibid